Five arrested in lensman assault case

A day after a MiD DAY photographer was attacked at an event at Hotel Sea Princess in Juhu, the Santacruz police have arrested five people in the case. A bouncer had attacked MiD DAY staffer Satyajit Desai and another freelance photographer present at the event (‘Punched at the pool, April 15), on Sunday.

Nabbed: The cops have registered a case against (top) Prateek Chauhan, who hurled abuses and then thrashed photographer Satyajit Desai

Cops have arrested the manager of the hotel Manjunath Kulkarni, event organiser Irfan Siraj and the bouncer Prateek Chauhan, who attacked and abused Desai. The cops have also arrested two security guards in the case. Deputy Commissioner of police Pratap Dighavkar said, “We have booked them under Sections 141 (unlawful assembly), 143 (punishment), 147 (punishment for rioting), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 427 (causing damage) of the Indian Penal Code.”

On Sunday evening, Desai and freelance photographer Dashrath Kadam had visited Hotel Sea Princess to cover an event organised by a liquor company. On the job, Desai started clicking pictures of the event where models were in bikinis. The bouncer Chauhan allegedly hurled abuses at Desai and shoved him. Shocked, Desai asked what went wrong, and that is when Chauhan started beating him. The injured photographers went to Santacruz police station and filed a complaint against the bouncer.